Desulfurizing apparatus



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DESULFURIZING APPARATUS.

(Application led Apr. 29, 1898.1

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

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Swank@ A. DE FIGANIRE. DES'ULFUBIZING APPARATUS.

Patented om.Y I8, |898.

(Application lea Apr. 29, 189B.;

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(Np Model.)

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UNiTnD STATES Barnim*N Urrrcn.

AFFONSO DE FIGANIRE, OFl NORRISTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

DES'ULFURIZING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent'No. 612,717, dated October 18, 1898.

Application filed April 29l 1898. Serial No. 679,242. (No model.) Y

T0 all whom, t nea/y 0011/007177,.-

Beit known that I, ArroNso DE FIGANIRE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Norristown, in the county of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Desulfurizing Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, suoli as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to the art of desulfurizing ores, and it is especially intended for use in connection with refractory auriierous ores.

The object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for economically and eiiiciently oxidizing the oxidizable constituents of refractory auriferous ores.

The invention involves an apparatus wherein atmospheric air is raised to a proper degree of heat and passed through the orebody in such regulated volume as will supply oxygen suliicient to produce oxidation or such slow combustion as will avoid heating the mass to such a degree as will melt the contained iron and thereby produce a matte.

The invention consists in the combination of a furnace for heating air7 an ore-chamber through which the air is conducted, and means for exhausting or drawing heated air through the body, of ore.

It also consists in other combinations of instrumentalities associated with the elements of the principal combination, which lwill be herereinafter described, and specifically pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification I have illustrated a convenient form of my invention, in which- Figure .1 is a side elevation. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal section; Fig. 3, a transverse section of my improved apparatus. Fig. 4i is a broken plan showing the application of a blower or other means for exhausting air from the ore-chamber.

As this apparatus is intended for use in localities remote or where transportation is diiicultand inaccessible I have organized the apparatus so that it may be taken in sections or pieces and in that way transported upon pack-animals, so that it may be set up and used near mines located in the wilderness.

1 represents a grate; 2, a bridge-wall of an ordinary or convenient form of'furnace. This furnace will communicate with a suitable stack or i'lue for carrying off the products of combustion. The walls of the nre-chamber or furnace are made up of metallic sections bolted together, as clearly shown in the drawings. The inside of this chamber is lined with asbestos or other refractory substance 3 to protect the iron from excessive heat and injurious action of the products of combustion. Outside or at the sides of the furnace or combustion-chamber is a jacket or housing 4., providing a chamber or passagev between itself and the outer walls of the furnace. Leading tothis chamber or passage are lues or conduits 5, provided with gates or dampers. Above' lthe arch of the furnace-chamber is provided a chamber '7,which I call the air-heating chamber. vThis chamber is filled with blocks of pumice, broken iirebrick, or other like non-oxidizable porous substance, the top of the chamber being slotted or provided with perforations 8 for the free passage of air through and out of said chamber. Above the air-heating chamber is provided an ore-chamber 9, into which pulverized ore is fed through, covers 10, the chainline represented in the drawings, and the top of this chamber is also provided,as illustrated, with perforaiions 11, through which the air may be drawn by means of a suitable exhaust apparatus 12, as shown in Fig. 4, there being provided above theV orechamber domes or spaces 13, with which communicate exhaust passages or lues 14, leading together and discharging through a passage 15 to the blower and thence to the atmosphere. The ore-chamber is provided with aseries of ports closed by doors 16 Afor the convenient withdrawal of the ore from the chamber after it has been treated to oxidize the oxidizable constituents of the ore. These doors are conveniently held in place by means of keepers consisting of eccentric levers 17, adapted to be rocked on their pivots, so as to release or loosen the door ber being intended to be filled up to about the IOO for removal and insertion and to be thrown into operative position to clamp the doors in firm contact with the boundaries or edges of the ports. In operation, the chamber 7 being filled with blocks of pumice or the like and the ore-chamber filled with pulverized ore, the doors and covers being luted to render the ore-chamber air-tight, lire is started on the grate and the pumice raised to a high degree of heat, after which the dampers or gates G are raised or opened and the blower started in operation. The gates are adjusted to regulate the volume of air admitted through the passages 5, and as it passes through the mass of pumice the air becomes heated to from 400 Fahrenheit to t300o Fahrenheit, more or less, whereupon the sulfur and other volatile metals are oxidized and carried off in fumes by the blower to the atmosphere or to any washing or condensing attachment, as may be desired. The volume of air being heated and introduced into the body of ore operates to oxidize its oxidizable constituents bya process of what l term slow combustion-that is, a combustion so regulated as to prevent the mass of ore from becoming heated to such a degree as to melt or fuse the contained iron in such a way as to produce a matte, my object being to oXidize the ore without producing matte. The volume of air admitted must be regulated to correspond with the character of the ore, so as to be sure to avoid such rapid combustion as to develop too great a heat in the body of ore. This can be done by an experienced operator without difliculty or may be determined by the use of pyrometers or suitable heat-indicators arranged within ditferent parts of the ore-chamber, so that the operator may observe and know just the degree of heat being generated in said chamber.

llavin g described my invention, what l claim as new, and desire to secure. by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a desulf urizin g apparatus, the combination of a combustion-chamber, an air-heating chamber illed with blocks of refractory substance arranged above the combustionchamber and provided with a slotted or perforated roof portion, an ore-chamber arranged above ,the air-chamber provided with a perforated or slotted roofv or top portion, a space or dome above the top of the ore-chamber, means for exhausting from the dome, and means for regulating the admission of air to the air-heating chamber, substantially as described.

2.` ln apparatus for desulfurizing ores, the combination of a combustion-chamber, an airheating chamber arranged above the combustion-cha1nber having a perforated or slotted roof and filled with refractory material, an orechamber arranged above the air-heating chamber, provided with a perforated or slotted roof, ademe or space on opposite sides of the roof portion, means for exhausting gases from the domes, air-ducts'leading from the atmosphere to the air-heating chamber, and gates or dampers for regulating the volume of airadmitted to said chamber, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I allix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

AFFONSO DE FIGANIERE. lVi tnesses:

FRANK E. GARTLEY, THEO. P. MATTHEWS. 

